An inquiry by NetworkWorld elicited the information that over-the-air updates would be limited to critical fixes and security patches only and even these would end in June.

Canonical also said that developers would be able to push updates and bug fixes to their apps in the Ubuntu Store until the end of the year.

It added that app purchases would also end in June. Developers of apps that charge a fee have a choice to either make their apps free or withdraw them from the store.

Marius Gripsgård, a developer who has already ported the Ubuntu phone distribution to many other models, has said he will be forking the Ubuntu store as well.

In a Q and A, he said, "We’re forking the OpenStore at openstore.ubports.com. We will ask app developers if they would like to place their apps on this store. Otherwise we cannot move the apps. They can be forked and placed."

Gripsgård also said he would support old official devices that were running the Ubuntu phone distribution.

"All devices but the (Meizu) Pro 5 and (BQ Aquaris) M10 will be in 'legacy' mode, getting critical bugfixes and security updates," he wrote.

"These will be in-between due to their closed Android source tree. We have mirrored the system-image-server so we can host the old images at some point."

Gripsgård said that old official devices would probably require a reflash and advised those who wished to continue using the distribution to buy one of the stable devices: Nexus 5, Fairphone 2, or OnePlus One.

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Sam Varghese has been writing for iTWire since 2006, a year after the sitecame into existence. For nearly a decade thereafter, he wrote mostly about free and open source software, based on his own use of this genre of software. Since May 2016, he has been writing across many areas of technology. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years in India (Indian Express and Deccan Herald), the UAE (Khaleej Times) and Australia (Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age). His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.